//------------------------------//
// A Financial Meeting. 
// Story: TD vs Equestria Girls 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

Well, that was a happy conversation. Adagio could definitely use the alone time. Hopefully she could sort some things out and get actual help. The problem was that one of the two people she trusted most in the world almost killed her, so who knows what that would do there. I guess Timber could help, but probably only so much. 

In any case, that still left what to do with the camp. 

I made it back to the main campground where everybody was sort of milling around, probably trying to wrap their minds around what had just happened. I know that they'd had stuff like the sirens controlling their minds, but this time they were a bit more aware of everything. Kind of made me wish I wasn't. When Gloriosa was pumping that much magic into the air, it felt like somebody twisting screws into my head, and I can't imagine that the others felt much better. How much it hurt was clearly dependent on how much magic you had, so Kristen and I got it the worst by far, but that didn't mean that the rest didn't go through it, too. Sunset and her buddies hadn't prepared for something like what had just happened. In any case, they had the geodes now. Probably for the best.

I found Blaze, Rapids and the rest of the group gathered around an unlit fire pit. Each of them looked like they'd run ten miles nonstop. Rarity and Fluttershy leaned against each other, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were just lying on the grass staring up at the sky, Twilight and Sunset were having a hushed conversation, probably about what had just happened, and even Pinkie just sat there and stared into the fire pit. I'd never seen her sitting so still in this world or mine. Both Kristens had fallen asleep back-to-back with each other, and Blaze and Rapids just kind of stood there. 

Ugh. Two Kristens. Both of whom looked exactly like the other one. Knowing my sister like I did, especially the past few years, it would take a heck of a lot to distinguish the two, and they'd do their best to make that as hard as possible for me. 

Sigh.

Sunset was the first one to notice me, and she stood up just as I reached the pit, which caused the others to look in my direction. I sat down on one of the logs and groaned as my muscles and joints protested the action. I'd probably wake up really sore the next day. Now I know what it's like being eighty. 

"How is she?" Sunset asked. 

"It's... going to be hard. She's been through a lot."

Aria quietly scoffed. "Yeah, she was always the most stubborn of the three of us. Surprised she ended up here."

"You'll have to get the whole story. It's quite something," I said. "Regardless, she needs some time. How are all of the campers?"

"Well, there's a huge line for the phones. Everybody is calling their parents, and I'm guessing that the week is over. We'll probably be seeing a fleet of cars here in the next few hours of campers getting picked up."

"Though last I heard, the phones were down, so nothing's gotten out as far as I know," Applejack said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the Kristens raise her fist and give a thumbs up. Hm. Interesting.

"I know I wouldn't want my daughters still here after this," I admitted. "If Gloriosa hadn't realized what she was doing..." I shook my head. Not a fun idea. There was so much pure magic in the air, it would have taken the army to take her down, and there's no way she'd survive that, to say nothing of the other casualties. If she went nuts because Filthy Rich was trying to take the camp over, I could only imagine what she'd do to people coming to destroy it. We'd gotten lucky. 

"Where is Gloriosa?" I asked, nudging a slightly charred piece of wood back into the fire pit. "She's probably a wreck, but we still need to talk."

"I think her and Timber went into the main office building," Twilight said. "Gloriosa didn't... look well."

"Yeah, I'll bet. She's probably going to need as much therapy as Adagio."

"I'm sure there are some great therapists who specialize in this exact situation on this side," Rapids said with a nod. "Ask around and you'll probably find two or three who know how to handle 'almost killed my family thanks to being possessed by magical rocks.'"

"Not sure if possession is the right word. Seemed closer to a drug addiction. In any case..." I stood up and motioned in the direction of the office. "I need to talk to her and Timber. Gotta figure out what to do next." 

The others mumbled in agreement, and I made my way to the office. I passed by dozens of campers, all of whom looked at me with slight awe. Yeah, I guess in the past few times I'd been here, I'd become more than "the mysterious Canadian" to them. Wouldn't be surprised if half of them knew at least something about where I'd come from. Celestia, Luna and Antares were at the entrance of the camp, conversing with each other about what had happened, if I had to guess. I'd need to talk to them, too. If Kristen had been a little slower, Principal Celestia would have been killed by one of the vines. I'd be surprised if they ever wanted to come back.

This wouldn't be an easy fix. 

The door to the main office was cracked open a bit, which gave me a pretty good idea that Timber and Gloriosa were in there. I pulled the door open and walked in, finding Gloriosa and Timber in the back office. Timber stood leaning against a wall, while Gloriosa laid in a fetal position on the floor, sobs shaking her entire body. Yeah, she'd probably do well to get some of that therapy we were talking about, even if she'd need to be a bit mum on the nitty gritty. Maybe we could hire a therapist from Equestria. 

Gloriosa looked up when I entered the room, and her eyes widened in fear. She shot to her feet and ran to the farthest corner of the room, holding her hand out as if to stop me if I was going to charge, or something. 

"No! Don't! I'm s-sorry! I d-didn't mean for it to go like that! D-don't hurt me!"

I lightly scoffed and shook my head as Timber took a few steps between Gloriosa and I. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"You're a liar!" she snarled. "You're the god of war, right? You've come in here to eliminate the threat or something, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Look, god of war is a title I didn't ask for, and it's completely irrelevant to our situation here. I'm not here to hurt you or arrest you, or anything like that. We have a lot to talk about, but I'm here to help. What would I possibly gain from doing anything to you?"

Gloriosa exchange a glance with Timber, but slowly put her hand down and relaxed ever so slightly. Well, that was a good start, at least. I noticed a chair in front of the desk and motioned to it. 

"May I?" When neither of them said anything, I sat down and leaned back a bit. "Okay, so you'll definitely need to talk to Adagio about everything. She's fine, for the most part. Few cracked ribs it sounds like, but nothing life threatening. She's hurt in far more ways than physical, but she's not going to die."

A pair of thick tears streaked down Gloriosa's face, and her body twitched in a few more sobs as she slid down to the floor and buried her face in her hands. 

"I didn't mean to," she whispered. "I just... it... I... I don't know."

"Where is she?" Timber asked. 

I jerked my head in the direction of the lake. "Skipping rocks on the shore last time I saw her. Needed to be alone for a bit. Can't say I blame her all that much." I grunted and leaned forward. "You got lucky. Really lucky. Another minute and we might be having a different conversation about her. None of the campers or teachers are hurt either, so there's that. Repairs might take a while, but buildings are a lot more replaceable than people."

"As if we even have the money for that in the first place," Timber groaned taking a seat behind the desk.

"Yeah, I heard that you owe a lot to Filthy Rich."

"You heard right," Timber muttered. "And after everything that just happened, there's no way that we'll be able to pay him back now."

"Heard he gave you a loan with some tiny fine print," I said. "How much?"

"Seventy-five thousand to be paid back in six months," Timber groaned. "Might have been able to do that if he hadn't pulled a fast one on us with the interest rate. He offered ten percent, then we were stupid enough to not read the contract carefully enough, and that ten percent turned into forty-five."

"Compounding weekly," Gloriosa muttered. "Which we also failed to notice."

"Still might have been able to pull it off by skimping a bit, but we had a bad month and couldn't make the whole payment. That's when we noticed a ten percent charge for being late. Because of that, we were late the next month. Then the month after that."

"And so on and so on." I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. "Sounds like he was just doing everything he could to get the property. Surprised he didn't just pull a gun." And also why I tend to have a team of lawyers look over anything I sign.

"He gave me until the end of the month to come up with the money," Gloriosa said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I didn't think that we'd be able to get all of it, but maybe just enough to buy us more time."

"Uh-huh," I said flatly. Yeah, I don't think she believed it would work either, but she probably thought she didn't have a choice.

"So we're homeless if we don't find a way to come up with the money in a couple of days," Timber said, thunking his head on the desk. "I just... I don't know."

"Hm. How much do you still owe him?"

"Thanks to all of those late fees and interest rates, not too much less than what we originally borrowed," Gloriosa whispered. 

So there was basically no chance that they'd be able to get the money to pay him back, which I'm sure was the point. He'd be able to make much more money off of the property than he'd ever make with them repaying the loan. I'm sure that this wasn't the first time he'd done something like this. He probably liked choosing borrowers who didn't have the means to pay him back, and wouldn't be able to sue if he screwed them over. It might be worth it to take a look at that. 

"Well..." I took a pen off of the desk and began idly spinning it in my hand. "There's a lot that you guys need to do, especially you, Gloriosa. We'll have to see how we can spin your little... event. Could try to blame it on Gaia Everfree, or something like that. It's not like these students haven't been on the wrong end of a little magic."

"That's going to take a lot," Timber said. 

"Yes, yes it is. I'll get my people on that. Talk to them. See the best ways that they can help out. In the meantime..." A small smirk crossed my face, and I tapped the pen on the desk. "Leave Filthy Rich to me."


*  *  *  *


The door to the office opened up, and a man dressed in a sharp business suit and perfectly slicked back hair walked in. The smirk he had on his face fell when he saw me sitting behind the desk. Guess I didn't look enough like Timber or Gloriosa to fool him. Oh well. He scoffed and took a few steps into the office. 

"Well. You're not who I expected. I believe when I called I requested to talk to Gloriosa or Timber. You are neither."

"Good to see we don't need to get your eyes checked," I said, idly tapping my finger on a knickknack on the desk. "They're both busy right now, so I've been given the task of dealing with you."

"Oh, is that so?" he said, raising his eyebrow. "Good to see that they aren't taking this seriously, or are they so scared of the consequences of their late payments that they send you in their place?"

"Zero for two on those guesses," I said. "We are here to discuss the nasty little deal you have with them, though. I gave the contract a once-over. Very nasty. They should have looked over it, but it's a mistake I'm sure they won't make again."

"They won't have the chance to make it again, unless they want to beg for more money from some other sucker. Either way, they learned a valuable lesson about business."

"They did, they did," I agreed. "However, sometimes things just don't work out the way people think they will, for good or bad. This is one of those times it works out for good. For some people, at least."

Filthy scoffed and shook his head. "Is there a point to this, boy? I have better things to do with my time."

"So do I, but I'm here talking to you." Before he could respond, I held my finger up and took a piece of paper out of my pocket. "Unless I've been hilariously misinformed, Timber and Gloriosa owe you a little money."

"More than a little, boy, but that doesn't concern you. I'm here to speak to the owners, so--"

"This much, if the paperwork checks out."

With that, I handed him the paper; a check for the amount that the camp owed him. He took the check, his brow furrowing as he examined it. After a moment, he let out an amused scoff. "Cute. You might as well have handed me play money you made with construction paper and crayons." He tossed the check back onto the desk. "You might not know how this works, so here's a free lesson: you can write all kinds of numbers on checks. You could have written one for a billion dollars, but unless there's actual, you know, money behind it, it's just paper."

"Oh, gee, I didn't know that, Mr. Filthy, sir," I said, putting my hand to my forehead and swooning back. "I thought for sure it would work. I wanted to write you a check for a million bajillion dollars, but then silly ol' me found out that there's no such number as a million bajillion!" I straightened up and gave him a flat look to counter his glare before motioning to the check. "It's good. I'm pretty sure you refusing to accept repayment would void the contract. By the way, thanks for not putting an early payment fee in there as well. Guess you figured that it'd never be applicable, so you decided to save a little ink."

Filthy's eyes slowly trailed down to the check, and a hint of doubt flickered across his face. He took the check off of the desk, then pulled the desk's phone towards him. He picked up the receiver and began dialing his accountant, if I had to guess.

"Hello? It's me," he said when whoever he dialed picked up. "I've just been given a check that I think will bounce, and I want to verify. If it does, I'll call Legal." I heard the buzz of the other person on the line for a few moments before Filthy began reading the numbers off of the check for his accountant. "Yes, that's right. Three-five-five. Yes. Did it bounce?" His eyes narrowed, and he gritted his teeth. "What do you mean it went through? There's no way..." He glanced up at me, and I gave him a cheeky little nod. He took a deep breath and went back to his conversation. "Yes. I understand. It's for the Camp Everfree contract. Is it paid in full now? It is?" He grunted. "Very well. I'll speak to you later. What? Granny Smith called? Eugh. Tell her I'll call her back."

"Good talk?" I asked. 

He slammed the receiver down with a little more force than was probably necessary, then pushed it away. Before he could start yelling, a look of recognition crossed his face, and he gave me a little smirk. "Oh, wait. I see. I know who you are now. I've heard about you from my daughter. You're one of those infamous Canadians I've been hearing about."

I shrugged. "Guilty as charged."

"Hm. Most interesting. Even more interesting..." He leaned in closer to me. "I did a little research. Just out of curiosity. Did you know that I looked far and wide, and there's no such place as Canada?"

My mother might have something to say about that. 

"Well, I don't suppose you can believe everything you read on the internet. Canada is a real place. Where do you think poutine is imported from?"

"Yes, quite. From what what I've heard, you're quite wealthy." He motioned to the pocket where he'd put the check. "At least wealthy enough to settle Camp Everfree's debts."

"I've saved up a lot of birthday money," I admitted. "Enough that I can spend it on what I want, which brings us to our next topic of conversation. You said you came to talk to the owners. Well..." I motioned to myself. "Here I am. I looked through your contract very carefully, and it only says stuff about you gaining ownership of the land if the loan wasn't paid off. It didn't mention anything about transferring ownership before that. I paid Timber and Gloriosa a more than fair price for this place, and now that I've settled things with you, all this is mine."

Filthy made a few grunts that sounded like the beginning of speech, but paused. His mouth twitched into an unbelieving smile as he tried to come up with the words to respond. "I... see," he said after a few moments.

"Now, then, since I'm the owner, I'm making a few changes," I continued. "This camp is nice, but a bit... archaic. I think there's a lot that can be done with this beautiful land. I was thinking a nice spa and luxury resort could get me a nice return on my investment, wouldn't you say?"

Filthy shot to his feet so fast he knocked the chair he was on over. If this were a cartoon, his eyes would have probably caught fire based on the look of pure fury that he was giving me. "I... you can't... I was going to--"

"Oh relax, relax, I'm not going to do that," I said with a wave of my hand. "This place will continue to operate as a summer camp as it should." I paused for a moment. "Hm. I wondered which one would piss you off more. Maybe you're still mad about my little joke. In either case, I'm sure I'll look into some upgrades for the place, but Camp Everfree will continue to operate otherwise."

Especially now that Sunset, her buddies, and my side were doing damage control. Between what had happened with the Sirens a few years back and seeing that Sunset and her friends now had magical powers, it wasn't too hard to convince them that it was the spirit of Gaia Everfree that had done everything, and Gloriosa was just a poor victim, and that we'd used the magic to banish the spirit of Gaia forever. After everything that happened whenever we showed up, the students were just kind of rolling with it. 

"Yes, very amusing," Filthy growled, adjusting his tie and slicking a few loose hairs back. "It seems you've covered your bases, then."

"Almost. There's one more little thing we have to discuss. Just a little thing to get out of the way; nothing serious."

Filthy grimaced. "Oh, and what's that?"

"You said you did some research into me, which is nice. I did some into you as well. Specifically public records about your company and some of the other contracts it has and companies it works with."

"Oh? Did you find anything interesting?"

"I did, actually. Most of them were fairly uninteresting, random suppliers for cleaning products for your stores and the like, but one stuck out to me." I could barely stop myself from smirking. "Sweet Apple Acres."

Filthy frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Yes, they supply some produce to our stores. What of it?"

"Well, a little digging and questioning one of the current residents told me that your grandfather struck a deal with the founders of the farm for exclusive rights to their apples and apple accessories. It's been very profitable for the both of you, from what I understand. Profitable enough that they've gotten offers from other companies to get in on that sweet, juicy, Red Delicious action, but they're loyal to you, so that never happens."

"I've been here long enough, boy. Are you going somewhere with this?"

"Most definitely. See, if there's one value that the Apple family places higher than all others, it's honesty." The first flicker of unease flashed across Filthy's face. I picked up the contract he'd given Timber and Gloriosa and dangled it in front of him for a moment. "Somebody wasn't exactly honest with the loan they offered. The Apples don't exactly concern themselves with every little contract of yours, and it's not like Timber and Gloriosa posted the contract online, so it makes sense that the Apples wouldn't have gotten wind of this, but some little birdie accidentally let some of the details slip."

A look of dawning horror crossed Filthy's face as he slowly started to understand what I was getting at. 

"Your accountant, or who I assume was your accountant, told you that Granny Smith was calling, right? Well, I may not be omniscient, but I have a fairly good idea of what she's calling about. It's either setting up a fantasy football league for the upcoming season, or she has some questions about your business practices. Now, I can't say for sure, but I get the sneaking suspicion that she might not like working with somebody who deliberately lied and manipulated somebody who came to him for a loan just to get their ancestral property. As a family with ancestral property of their own, I can see how that would be a cause for concern.

Filthy just looked like a deer in headlights at that point. 

"And if the Apples leave, some of your other business partners might ask the question 'why would a business that's had ties with Barnyard Bargains for generations just up and leave?' From there..." I clicked my tongue and stood up. "Well, like I said: I'm not omniscient. In any case, we've taken up too much of each others' time. If you'll excuse me."

With that, I walked out the door, leaving Filthy frozen like a statue.